Trade-offs between life-history traits
Finally, we tested whether there are trade-offs between within-host infection load and transmission potential, and whether P. subordinaria strain or PlLV coinfection have an effect on trade-offs. In this model, pathogen strain had significant impact on pycnidia formation, but PlLV coinfection did not (Table1). We found that while pycnidia formation was not directly correlated with AUDPS, the relationship between pycnidia formation and AUDPS was mediated by strain identity (significant interaction AUDPS × strain; Table 1; Fig. 3A) and by coinfection with PlLV (significant interaction AUDPS × PlLV coinfection; Table 1; Figure 3B). There was a negative correlation between AUDPS and pycnidia formation in strain P29 suggesting a trade-off, whereas in strain P43 there was no evidence of a trade-off (Figure 3A). Similarly, in mock inoculated plants trade-offs between pycnidia formation and AUDPS was observed, but not in PlLV infected plants (Figure 3B).